Thank you for visiting my website. My name is David Ashby and I write books for children, grown-ups, grown-downs and very intelligent dogs.
My home town is Brighton, right on the south coast of the UK, but nowadays I live in Stockholm, Sweden. I moved to Sweden in 2002 to be with Elvira, who is now my wife. I think I can speak Swedish, but my two children tell me that I can’t and advise me not to.
Many many years ago I visited a fortune teller who held my hand tightly, pulled me close to her so that I could smell her hair and feel her breath on my face and whispered to me that I would one day live outside the UK, that I would have two children, that I would live to be a very old man indeed and that I would never, ever, have a book published.
Well, she was right about the first two and I’m not dead yet, but I have actually had a book published. It came out in March 2019 thanks to Pushkin Press and Sarah Odedina. I’m glad that was the prediction the fortune teller got wrong.
My book is called “GRIBBLEBOB’S BOOK OF UNPLEASANT GOBLINS” and is illustrated by the great JEN KHATUN. You can order it now at Foyles.co.uk, Waterstones.com and Amazon.co.uk
Strangely enough, my wife, Elvira Ashby, also writes books for children, although mainly in Swedish. You can read a little bit about her here and here. Oh, and here!
I hope you find something of interest on my website, and that you will enjoy reading about Gribblebob.
You can read some short bits and pieces I have written on Medium, here.
2023 UPDATE!
Very pleased to be on the Longlist for the Stockholm Writers Festival First Five Pages Prize with “Ebonie Woodhead is NOT a Witch!” You can see the longlist here. Happy to confirm that Ebonie Woodhead is absolutely not a witch.
THANK YOU!
PS – the photo of me was taken by my friend Mathias Sautermeister, and he made me look as good as is humanly possible. Normally I look more like Gribblebob.